Breast success
For the first three days after the birth and before your milk comes in, your baby will normally want small frequent feeds, probably every three hours or so, spending less than ten minutes on each breast. If your baby wants to feed a lot longer than this, he’s probably not getting enough milk because he’s not latched on correctly. Don’t just carry on breastfeeding like this as you risk getting sore nipples if you feed for a long time with your baby latched on incorrectly. Ask your midwife for help. Once your feeding technique improves, your feeds will almost certainly become shorter. You will then be well on the way to establishing successful breastfeeding.
Perhaps one of the most important things to bear in mind when it comes to breastfeeding (or for that matter, bottle-feeding) is that you need to give yourself time to get to know your baby. A new mother cannot become an expert overnight. To begin with, you may worry when your baby cries and wonder if you have enough milk, whether you fed him for long enough or whether you winded him properly. If you devote lots of time to your new baby in the first few weeks, you will quickly learn to distinguish between his various cries and become a much more confident mother. Initially, you may feel a bit like a dairy cow but as every day goes by, your new role as a mother will seem less challenging and more normal.
For more information see Clare Byam-Cook’s book:
‘What to expect when you’re breastfeeding….and what if you can’t’ published by Vermilion £7.99.
previous | 1 | 2 |
printer friendly
send to a friend
Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Horoscopes| Message Boards | Quizzes | Newsletters | Join
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB
